Twisted
by justawanderingdragon
Summary: There's this strange man who may or may not be a Roman and this strange woman who's wearing weird clothing. And then there's this blue box. And Hiccup doesn't know what to make of it. After a risky adventure, he ultimately decides to leave the blue box behind forever. But one little, fateful adventure is enough to twist a timeline.
1. Wait, Did You Say ROME?

He had come here for peace! Well, how would he know that there would be more people here? In the middle of the dense woods, of all places…

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, a wandering outcast, held his back tight against a large tree trunk, trying desperately to go unnoticed by the stranger. He put his fingers up to chapped lips, a sign for his companions to act quiet. Below his chest flapped two acid-green wings, that of a young and fidgety dragon who was quite small and literally toothless. Next to his head, positioned against the tree as well was a much older, browner and wrinkled dragon. High above, hidden in the treetops, a dragon watched in silence. You might stop and think, 'Wait, _dragons?'_ but believe me, this was a normal sight.

Or at least, it _had_ been normal a few months ago. The boy you look at, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, a skinny gangly and ginger barely-Viking of fourteen was the would-be ruler of the Wilder West. Technically, he _had_ succeeded in the sword-fighting competition used to determine the king. But when the person who had made up the rules to this contest didn't like you that much, there wasn't a very good chance you would actually come out on top. And as the rule-maker-upper was a certain witch named Excellinor, it only be fit that her son (a certain man named Alvin the Treacherous) had risen as the king instead. If Hiccup had had his way, dragons accompanying humans would have continued to be a normal sight in the Barbaric Archipelago…But this was unfortunately not so, as within minutes of becoming King of the Wilder West, Alvin had declared war on the dragons.

And what a stupid and pointless war it was! If Hiccup were king, no form of slavery would have been tolerated _at all,_ neither human nor dragon. And if the war was all about the dragons wanting to be free, then THAT could've certainly been avoided.

Even as former heir to the Hairy Hooligans, Hiccup had no real legal power. His cousin Snotface Snotlout had instead become chief of the tribe. According to Viking law, Hiccup himself was a slave, as he had the slavemark given to him by Wanderers (long story). The only hope now was to find the King's Things and take them to the Island of Tomorrow where Hiccup would prove he was the rightful heir to Grimbeard the Ghastly, the former King of the Wilder West. And so now with his three dragons, Toothless, Wodensfang and the Windwalker, Hiccup roamed the Barbaric Archipelago looking for the final object—the Dragon's Jewel.

Hiccup winced as a loud laugh pierced the air. Unable as he was to see the culprit from behind the tree, which seemed to be a man, he could definitely hear his loud voice. Hiccup couldn't help but be slightly irritated at the man's stupidity. Who would ever be so loud and happy in such a world in its current state? It was far too dangerous. There could be thugs that could hear you, vicious Vikings waiting in the treetops to cut out the throat of an unsuspecting traveler…

…Or maybe a frightened teenager hiding in the undergrowth, silently begging for the traveler to travel away. Hiccup prayed to Thor and Woden and Freyja and every Norse god and goddess he had ever heard of that the stranger would leave quickly and without trouble.

Unfortunately, things don't always go well for Hiccup, and they didn't this time. The pair of travelers (YES, there were TWO pairs of footsteps now!) walked over to Hiccup's tree. Hiccup grimaced and crouched down low, as if that would magically make him invisible (it didn't, in case you were wondering).

"Okay, so where are the elephants?" asked a young woman.

"Well…The TARDIS is funny like that. Every time we want to go somewhere important, she takes us somewhere off course. But then, when it's not that important at all and we've got all the time in the world, BAM! We're still off course."

The woman laughed, a high-pitched and happy laugh. "Oh, well! We can still have fun where…wherever we are. But!" she shivered. "It is a bit cold. And I dressed for Africa, mind you."

_Pleaseleavepleaseleavepleaseleave,_ Hiccup thought desperately.

"Let's not plan to leave soon!" shouted the man gleefully. "According to the TARDIS, we've landed in the dark ages! I rarely every come to the dark ages…voluntarily. It's always so…_dark and gloomy,_ ya'know?"

"Yes, nice change of pace," announced the girl. "You promised me adventure in the African Safari, but cold and dark and isolation is nice too."

The overly-cheerful man laughed out loud. "That's where you're wrong, Donna! You see, even though we're on a tiny island off the coast of Scotland, we're not isolated! There's a whole forgotten culture around these parts…Stories of Viking settlements and Celtic kings…I dare go as far and say that _dragons _could exist here for all we know. I don't know why I never came here before…"

Donna scoffed. "A whole forgotten culture, eh? I don't see and legendary Vikings and dragons right now."

"Ha! On the contrary, my dearest Donna. There is, in fact, a young boy standing right around that tree over there. He thinks we can't see him, but bright ginger hair kind of gives it away."

Hiccup held his breath and stayed behind the tree.

"Oh come on, lad! We're not going to hurt you."

Hiccup did not move a muscle.

"No, it's okay! We won't bite," added Donna.

"Of all things," commented Hiccup from behind the tree. "Why would you bite? I mean, you're not a _dragon _or anything so why would you bite? No, I'm much more afraid that you'll _run a sword through my body._ Biting is the least of my worries. You know, unless you're a Berserker. You're not a Berserker, right?" He peeked his head out, cautiously.

The now visible man shrugged. "'Fraid not. But sometimes if I'm not in a ripe mood—usually on Mondays—I do tend run around with a horned helmet and crash into stuff. I'm the Doctor, BTW, or whatever the Norse equivalent is to 'by the way'. What's your name?"

"Dogsbreath," responded Hiccup quickly, now in front of the tree, but still a safe distance from the strangers. At the Doctor and Donna's odd faces, he said, "Name's supposed to scare off gnomes and trolls. You're going to, um, Africa, I guess. Be on your way."

"No, no! I'd like to stay here for a while, see the sights, maybe tag along with the Vikings and pillage a village…Say that real fast, Donna. Pillage a village. Pillage a village. Pillage a village."

Hiccup closed his eyes. "Actually…" he said softly. "That's not such a good idea. You see, there's this…war around and…it's not too safe, you see."

"Welp, a little war never stopped me—Oh." The strange man fell silent.

"What? What's wrong, Doctor?" Donna asked, slightly irked. "Did you forget something about this place? Is today the day some random planet is supposed to crash into the Earth and wipe out northern Scotland?"

"…Rome. We should go to Rome," the Doctor said quickly. "Anywhere that's not here. We should get as far away from here as possible."

"What's the matter with the dark ages?" asked Donna. "Don't you want to 'pillage a village'?"

"No—it's just that…" he noticed Hiccup staring at him. "Never mind! Donna, we should get back in the TARDIS and we _should_ go to Rome! Ancient Rome, mind you. Have you ever been there, Donna?" Back to his usual happy self, the Doctor took Donna's hand and started to leave the glen.

Hiccup stared at their backs a bit before saying, "Okay then. Uh, if you want to get to Rome, you can ask for their directions at the fort, it's about a day's boat ride down."

"It's okay!" the Doctor yelled back from over his shoulder. "We've got a time-traveling spaceship!" And with that, the strangers disappeared.

Hiccup was left wondering if any of that odd conversation had happened at all. He then told himself to get more sleep and shouted to the three waiting dragons in Dragonese, **"All clear! Let's get a move on before anything else weird happens…"**

"**Hiccup,"** started the old brown dragon, Wodensfang. **"It wasn't wise of you to talk to those people."**

"**I know but…What was I supposed to do? That man had spotted me. I don't think they were from around here anyways…Did you see how they were dressed?"** Indeed, Hiccup had been caught off-guard by the travelers' clothing, especially Donna's lack of.

"**And didn't it seem strange that the Doctor was in such a hurry to leave?"** added the Windwalker, a large flying dragon.

"**You heard what he said—they had to go to Rome for some reason."**

The last dragon—the teeny-tiny bright green one—almost dropped from the air. **"Y-y-you don't think they're R-r-romans, do you?" He spat 'Romans' as if it were a cursed word. "R-r-romans and their attitude! Look at m-m-me, I'm a Roman! I'm f-f-fat and stupid and get i-i-in the way! P-p-pathetic."**

"**Well, at least their Norse was spot-on."**

xXx

"WAIT, DID YOU SAY ROME?!"

Hiccup drew his sword in defense, quickly, before stopping mid-swoosh when the Doctor waved his arms from a distance away, screaming, "It's OKAY! It's just the Doctor! And Donna!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Hiccup shrieked back in surprise. "And HOW in Thor's name did you find me?"

"Lucky search, and _what is it with Vikings and swords?"_ The Doctor groaned before snatching the rusted metal blade out of Hiccup's hands.

"Hey!"

"You could poke an eye out with that thing! Sorry, I don't believe in violence. Look, it isn't even in good condition!" For show, the Doctor presented the now-snapped halves of Hiccup's sword. "What's your name, Dogsbrain or something? Yeah, Dogsbrain, so—no, wait…It's Dogsbreath. So Dogsbreath, what were you saying about Rome a while ago?"

Hiccup stared him point blank confused. "Rome? A while ago? You mean a few days ago?"

The Doctor waved it off. "A few days ago, a few minutes ago, same difference. _The point is,_ you know what Rome is."

Hiccup shoved red bangs from his face so he saw the Doctor eye to eye. "Yeah? So? Everyone does. It's the _Roman Empire,_ for crying out loud."

"No, no, no! Vikings—at least the ones in Northern Scotland—have never encountered the Roman Empire before…So why have you?"

"You're not a Roman…are you? Because that's what my friends think."

"No," started Donna. "We're not Romans, we—"

"Your tribe was never supposed to meet the Romans," the Doctor murmured to himself. "The Empire has fallen by now. Wait—" He paused, then pointed in Hiccup's direction. "Dogsbreath!"

"Yes?" responded Hiccup.

"How's the mighty Roman Empire doing?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Oh, you know. Still mighty. Mighty annoying."

"And may I ask the current century?"

"Eleventh, I think. Although I don't see how that would solve your problem which I don't really know of. I'm a bit confused, in case you were wondering."

"Something that big…" the Doctor rambled to no one in general. "The fall of the great and mighty Roman Empire, something that big and important…I think I would have noticed, ya know? It can't happen any other way, but somehow_—somehow—_it did. Why hasn't the world ended yet?"

Donna shrugged and patted the distressed Doctor on the shoulder. "I don't know. Maybe you did some of your linear science timey magic stuff and we happen to have not died yet."

"I don't remember doing anything that big with Rome," the Doctor answered. "So!" he said, clapping his hands. "I see only one explanation!" He grinned a manic grin. "We're in an alternative universe."

Donna laughed out loud. "Oh, that's a good one! But knowing you, you probably encounter this stuff all the time."

The Doctor smiled. "Exactly!

Meanwhile, a still very confused Hiccup looked on. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, you wouldn't get it, Dogsbreath," the Doctor said, patting Hiccup's shoulder. "Science-y stuff, way before your time."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Try me."

Donna smiled, "Ohh, clever boy."

Putting his hands in his suit pockets and smirking, the Doctor said, "Okay," and began to explain time physics to a Viking. "You see, Dogsbreath, there is this reality—" he motioned to the forest around them. "—and others. This reality is everything you see here, everything you've ever heard of and everything you haven't. And there's another place, believe it or not, just like this very glen here, but not exact. There's something out of place. Maybe a man lived when he shouldn't, or maybe an entire empire survived. You know, small things like that."

Hiccup nodded vaguely. "And these 'alternate realities'…_Where _exactly are they?"

"Not here, that's for sure!" The Doctor laughed. "You'll never be able to get there. It's just impossible."

"And how do you know this?"

"Well, I'm_ from_ an alternate reality."

"Isn't that…you know, _impossible?"_ Hiccup responded in a matter that could be considered calm, combining with the fact of course that he did not believe this madman one bit.

"Not for me, it isn't!" The Doctor grinned smugly. "Well if that's it, we'll just be off."

Hiccup gave the duo his most skeptical look. "So you're not Romans, then?"

"Only as Roman as the Huns are! Wait," the Doctor said, staring off into space. "You don't know them yet. Never mind."

The on looking boy shook his head. "What are you guys, like time travelers or something?"

"Absolutely. Come one, Donna, off to the TARDIS!"

The two, the Doctor and his companion, sauntered off into another part of the woods, while poor Hiccup was left with a very confused expression on his face. It was a moment or two before he shook his head and shouted to the treetops, **"Toothless! Wodensfang! Windwalker! Wait right here and don't move!"** Three dragons, the ones Hiccup had named, looked down from the large pine they had clambered in at the first fear of deadly strangers when Hiccup had drawn his sword. Leaving Hiccup, all on his own, to dash after them himself.

Running through the maze of trees and shrubs, Hiccup fought his way deeper into the forest, following the crushed and trampled ground betraying their path. He heard them, laughing and talking, up ahead, and the boy slowed to a walk in an attempt to remain unnoticed. Unarmed and totally unprepared, Hiccup rounded the bend.

There was a box. A blue box. A great, blue box that the Doctor and Donna had disappeared into. Snugged between two trees, and doors wide open, Hiccup was left puzzled as to how this brilliant box ended up in the middle of the forest.

"Care to do some explaining?" asked Donna, from inside the blue box.

"Simple," the Doctor explained. "The TARDIS got too close to the edge of the time vortex. About to fall out, she attempted to get back on track. Then, in the confusion of it all, we latched onto a different time stream. But…" he trailed off. "I do wonder what set us off course. The TARDIS doesn't usually do that, she's usually pretty sturdy."

"What?" exclaimed Donna. "I thought you said it was a fairly difficult task, traveling to different dimensions."

"Well, in a way, it is. First off, it's very dangerous near the edge of the time vortex, we're very lucky that the TARDIS was fast to rewire. Second, there's usually a force pushing all things in the time vortex to the center. It's usually so _hard_ to get off, actually…I don't know _how_ we got off track, it's usually _radiating _with time, er, TARDIS-pushiness…"

"What do you think could push us off?"

The Doctor paused, to ponder Donna's question. "That is a very good question, because frankly, I don't know."

"…Oh." Then to ease the tension, she said, "Well _that's _a first!"

"We're not dead, and that's good. Let's just go. Oh, hullo Dogsbreath, how long have you been spying on us?"

Hiccup lurched back behind the box's doors. Pacing himself, he tried to step backwards as quietly as possible in hopes that the Doctor and Donna would ignore him. It was obvious that they were not Vikings, that they were _not _Romans, but that didn't mean that they were not dangerous.

"We know you're there, you don't have to hide! Come on in!"

Hiccup, seeing no reason why not to, followed the Doctor's instructions and hopped through the threshold of the box. Eyes wide, he looked around at was a tiny little box on the outside. Key words 'on the outside'. The inside was totally different. The inside…the inside…

It was beautiful. There were no lanterns, but the walls seemed to emit a golden light of their own. And it was so _big _and _wide,_ perhaps even as large as the Great Hall! Pillars that were not pillars hung from the ceiling and tapered themselves down to the floor, creating the perfect sitting place. But the most absolutely wonderful and incredibly _interesting_ part of it all was the centerpiece. It was tall and blue, with little whirring bits inside a glass tube. Panels of some exotic metal layered the sides, with buttons and dials and levers and trinkets that were just so _fascinating _that you could toy with them forever even if you never ever figured out what they did. Everything looked alien and strange, like complete and utter nonsense, and you'd never find out what it was supposed to mean, what is was meant, but you'd never want to stop looking at it.

And Hiccup was _curious._ You can't blame him, not really, for forgetting the world outside him and wandering around to the panel, where the strangers were standing. Wouldn't you?

The Doctor just smiled. Hiccup could tell that he was all too familiar with this reaction. Donna gave him a knowing look, and he knew instantly that she had once been like him and had not understood this room one bit, and still didn't completely. "Dogsbreath," the Doctor said. "Welcome to the TARDIS."

xXx

"It's Time And Relative Dimensions In Space," the Doctor explained. "That's what TARDIS stands for, if you were wondering. Now the doors have snapped shut and we are going somewhere. Would you like to know where we are going, Dogsbreath?"

Hiccup murmured, "Actually…I left some folks back there—friends, actually." He held on tight to a strange contraption that he had never seen before as the TARDIS wobbled like an angry bull. "Won't they notice that I'm gone?"

The Doctor glanced at Hiccup, made a face, and then said, "Nah. The TARDIS is a time machine, if you haven't noticed. You'll be back faster than you can say—DEAR GALLIFREY, WHAT WAS THAT?!"

There was a sudden lurching, as if the TARDIS had hit a bump in the road or something (but of course you shall not find a rock or other obstacle in the time vortex, so this was impossible).

"Is—" _Lurch._ "Is the TARDIS supposed to do that?" asked Hiccup curiously. Of course whenever someone asks something as innocent as that, there HAS to be something wrong. The TARDIS was actually NOT supposed to do that.

"No," Donna explained. "It—" _Lurch._ The ginger girl lost her footing and fell to the floor.

"So it's not?" Hiccup yelled over the roaring engines.

"Absolutely not!" the Doctor replied. "I know that this is quite fun and all, but we must land somewhere quickly before—" _Lurch._ "—it gets out of hand. Dogsbreath, how about we go back to your friends and explain to them why you have left?"

"Fine with—" _Lurch._ "Fine with me."

The TARDIS let out an odd sound that was very much like a dying squirrel serpent to Hiccup. At the moment, he wished very much for a helmet—any old helmet—as his head bashed itself against the console. _'That's definitely going to leave a mark,'_ he thought. And as terrifying as it was, riding on this 'TARDIS' was an exciting experience. Maybe not the this-is-so-much-fun-I-cannot-wait-to-do-it-again type of exciting but more along the lines of well-this-is-interesting-and-different. But exciting nonetheless.

Preoccupied with his thoughts, Hiccup did not anticipate the sudden loss of motion as the TARDIS came to a violent stop. He scrambled to his feet, only to be knocked down again and on the floor. Above him, the Doctor and Donna looked down at him—it was obvious they hadn't fallen down, unlike him.

"Next time," Donna suggested politely. "You might want to hold on tighter."

Hiccup turned his head away in embarrassment.

"Sorry for the rough ride, Dogsbreath!" the Doctor chirped. "The TARDIS doesn't usually act like that—"

"Only two out of five times, actually," Donna added.

"—I mean yes you have to hold onto something," the Doctor rambled on. "Yes it does lurch midflight, but it was if we were being tossed in a sack! Like someone put us in a jam jar like a bug and started shaking it." He turned away from Hiccup (who was still on the floor) and started walking towards the console.

"Quite hard," Hiccup admitted.

Not noticing the young Viking, the Doctor went on, examining the TARDIS. "And the _landing_…She nearly _never_ does that." He turned back to Hiccup, who had by now regained his footing with the help of Donna and was now brushing himself off. "Bad first impression. Want to give it another shot?"

"Uh," Hiccup started. "Not right now. I-I need to go check on something." He started to rush out the wooden doors.

"Ah," the Doctor said, very pleased with himself that he had come to a conclusion. "You'd like to see if your friends are okay. Would they like to see the TARDIS as well? I usually would say that bringing along random people for joy rides through time and space is stupid, but then I'd be a hypocrite."

"No, not at all," Hiccup interjected. "In fact, I might not come back. So you can leave, okay? Okay." He ran out the doors, leaving the TARDIS crew behind.

"Gee, what's got him up in a fit?" Donna asked.

"Well," the Doctor explained. "Seems the kid's just worried for his friends. Sweet, innit?" He walked over to the TARDIS doors and looked out. "He's run far away by now. Vikings can be like, you know. Simple minded. Well!" The Doctor closed the doors. "We better get out of here. Fast. I don't like this place, not one bit."

"Do I dare ask why?"

But the Doctor had already begun twisting knobs and turning dials, the engines whirred happily as if the little fit had never happened—the TARDIS was leaving the forest. "All I can tell you is…You wouldn't stay either."

"Oh?" Donna responded, crossing her arms. "You can tell me more, because right now I would stay, despite how depressing this little island is."

"Well…" the Doctor drawled. "Remember how I said dragons might live here? Well, I wasn't joking."

Donna's mouth fell open. She wanted to say something, to ask more about the dragons—now she _really did_ want to stay, more than ever. But the TARDIS was already in motion.

**Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon. That belongs to Cressida Cowell and Dreamworks.**

**Welp! Finished the first chapter of my first story…Gah! I hope it was enjoyable. And yes, it is taking place in the book!verse. For now. Constructive criticism is appreciated!**


	2. A Certain Blonde Viking Girl

It was the loveliest day that the isle of Berk had seen in a while. The air was cool and crisp, not ragged for once. Vegetation growth marked a healthy environment. Common songbirds were chirping frequently and loudly, as to take opportunity of this splendid day. Even the sea, not so far from the frigid Arctic Circle, felt warmer to the touch and waves less roughened. It was the type of day where one could do as they pleased and just relax…

Unless you were like Hiccup, who was ignoring nature's wonder with embarrassment and stress still clinging to him like a wet rag. 'Well THAT was stupid,' he thought. The boy had ventured away from the glen where the, er, _TARDIS_ had landed, not intending to look back. Hiccup didn't notice his surroundings, as he was only concentrating on getting as far away from that _TARDIS_ as possible. He felt as if the entire endeavor had been very pointless and very dumb.

Hiccup shook his head and continued to walk through the forest, shouting for his dragons. When they did not respond right away, he sighed and assumed that they had wondered off and were now playing amongst themselves idly in the trees. **"Toothless! Windwalker! Wodensfang!"** he called again, a bit louder this time. A chipmunk or two scurried away from a carpet of fallen leaves, but that was it. There were no signs of dragon life in this barren land. Hiccup began to get worried. In the past few dangerous months, his faithful friends never strayed too far from his side…Where they hurt? he wondered. Did they get kidnapped by Vikings or enemy dragons?

"**We need to get going! We have no time for games!"**

Hiccup told himself as calmly as he could not to panic (which, quite frankly, did surprisingly little to help his nerves). Walking throughout the woods, searching for his friends and calling for them as well, Hiccup began to become a bit more in-tuned to his surroundings.

It was not the glen. He was no longer on the same path he had followed to reach the TARDIS. Hiccup was lost, and he knew it. The dragons were currently separated from him, and he knew it as well. He was by himself, alone, in the woods, where he knew not what was potentially watching him…

"STORMFLY!" shouted a strong voice, a female voice.

Hiccup's first thought was _'Camicazi?'_ for only Camicazi could yell that loud and only Camicazi had a dragon named Stormfly... "Come here, girl!" shrieked the voice again and Hiccup yelped in surprise.

And although Hiccup had promised himself to stay hidden, out of sight and out of trouble, a strong curiosity pricked inside of him. He hoped against hope that maybe it _was_ Camicazi, that she might be just around the bend. But those hopes were dashed when Hiccup realized that is extremely improbable, and she shouldn't be in this part of the Archipelago anyways.

So Hiccup walked off, slightly disappointed, but…

…But. But it could be a certain scary-looking-but-cute-and-also-violent blonde Viking girl, who, against all odds, was here, on this deserted island, where he himself was standing.

Hiccup hoped against hope that it _was_ Camicazi, a familiar friend after months of isolation and violence. But a small but wise voice in the back of his head was whispering quietly that even if it was her, it wouldn't be a good idea to walk up and strike a conversation as if nothing had happened and the world was normal. Hiccup agreed brought up the suggestion of _just making sure_ without talking or any interaction at all, as he was getting very curious.

So Hiccup had walked a bit closer in the direction of the voice, all while making certain to be well-hidden amongst the trees. And there, just a hop, skip tumble away was standing a scary-looking-but-cute-and-also-violent blonde Viking girl.

But it wasn't Camicazi.

For one thing, Hiccup noted, this girl was tall. Taller than him, and probably older too. She also had her hair tied back in a messy braid, something Camicazi would never do, as she preferred to keep hers in its natural, un-brushed state. And instead of his friend's signature sword, a heavy and battle-worn axe rested against the girl's skirt.

"Stormfly!" she called again.

But why was this girl (who was most certainly _not_ Camicazi) looking for Stormfly? There weren't any other dragons in the Barbaric Archipelago named Stormfly…Where there?

Hiccup's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as a huge gust of wind blew itself like a twister to the ground below. A completely _massive_ dragon then flew down from the sky above, flapping its great wings and landing gracefully not-too-far from Hiccup and the girl.

"Oh, there you are!" the blonde cried in joy as she ran over to greet the dragon. "Stormfly! Oh, what have I told you about chasing flocks of birds?" The girl's tone sounded harsh and angry, but her body language spoke otherwise as she laid her arms around 'Stormfly's' thick scaly neck. "C'mon girl, let's get back to the village! I would've finished chopping wood by now if you hadn't run off!" She used Stormfly the Second's (yes, that was what Hiccup was calling her in his mind) enormous blue wings as a quick lift to the leather saddle the dragon proudly sported. The pair launched off in a whirl of wind and wings, nearly knocking down poor Hiccup, who was quite confused and still trying his best to go unnoticed.

As Hiccup attempted to regain his footing, he couldn't help but wonder why a _Viking _was riding a _dragon _when such interactions were forbidden nowadays (of course, that had never stopped _him)._ And what the Hel kind of dragon was that anyways? And _why _was this girl, who reminded him so much of Camicazi, yet was so unlike her, riding a dragon named Stormfly who was obviously not the Stormfly that he knew?

'_The village,'_ he thought. _'She mentioned something about a village. But last time I checked, there weren't any nearby villages in this part of the Archipelago…'_

Hiccup ran through the thick undergrowth of the forest, suddenly remembering that Toothless, the WIndwalker and Wodensfang were all still lost. Where could they be? This had never happened before…

'_Stupid TARDIS,'_ thought Hiccup. It had all gone downhill when the Doctor showed up with his TARDIS-thing and that woman.

**xXx**

Very quickly, the dense forest began to thin out into a peaceful wood. _'That's odd,'_ noted Hiccup. _'I thought this place would be _covered_ with trees…Oh! The _village_ must be nearby, wherever it is.'_

As Hiccup wandered closer, the land took on a new atmosphere and appearance. Trees, for example, sported carefully-cut branches, a sign that humans had sawed them down for timber. There was less wild game, as those animals would've been the first hunted. Even the air was starting to smell slightly of roasted food and human activity; typical odors for an average Viking settlement.

And Hiccup's assumptions were proved correct, for very soon lay sprawled out in front of him like a picture-perfect drawing on a map, a medium-sized Viking village. Hiccup dare not enter, though, for fear that people would recognize his face from the wanted posters, something that would _not_ be good. But then again, it would be useful to know exactly where he was, as he had previously thought the island was small and uninhabited. This proved not to be so. The town was very alive and bustling, people happily chatting with one another while exchanging goods and gossip.

'Where am I?' Hiccup wondered. Every other village he had happened to come across seemed to be full of scared and vengeful people, angry at him, angry at the dragon rebellion, and angry at the world in general; not surprising since the largest war the Archipelago had ever seen was raging right on civilians' doorsteps as rebel dragons attacked at night. People lived in constant fear and misery, knowing full too well that any day might be their last.

But what _did_ surprise Hiccup was that amongst this war-torn world lay a seemingly peaceful and care-free village where the inhabitants rode _dragons._ And it seemed that the blonde girl wasn't the only one to be friendly with the beasts; dragons of all shapes and sizes and colors flew around the air, ate out of barrels, followed people around, and no one tried to do anything about it. It looked completely normal.

Hiccup was reminded of Berk, his now-destroyed hometown, when life was far from great, but it wasn't _completely_ horrible. Back—on a normal day, when life seemed to drag on forever, it was so dull—when no one wanted to kill him (except for Snotlout) and no one wanted to kill dragons (except for Snotlout). Those days, Hiccup would wander to the nearby cliffs with Toothless, who begged to be carried because his wings were too tired, and where Hiccup would eventually give into the whining dragon and they would waste the day away dragon-watching. It was because of these long afternoons that Hiccup knew nearly every species of dragon known to Vikings.

Or at least, he _thought _he had known. The secluded village teemed with dragons that Hiccup had never laid eyes on before. Most were huge and colorful, like Stormfly the Second, but others resembled Common or Garden dragons very much so, but lacking the sharp little teeth.

Oh, the Common or Garden dragons here were toothless! Hiccup watched the reptilian beasts, their eyes goggling lazy and their heads swinging in excited circles. He sighed. There was a place, an isolated island where Vikings and dragons lived together peacefully every day, side by side. This discovery, although sparking a small flame of hope in Hiccup, also reminded him of the fact that a good part of the uncivilized world claimed the deed impossible. But here! Here was the proof! Hiccup wished that people could look at such a scene as this and admit that it did seem like a better alternative to war, rather than immediately destroy it.

It was like no one wanted peace! Had Alvin and his mother somehow twisted the peoples' minds into believing that fighting was necessary? Was this what the human soul was reduced to when stripped raw?

Hiccup shook his head and stared back out to the near-perfect scene playing before his eyes, like a clipping from a dream. Two young children, no older than ten, giggled in pure joy as a large, monstrous-looking fire-red dragon ate breadcrumbs out of their hands, like a well-behaved puppy. The girl affectionately scratched behind its upper neck spines, a place that was difficult for the dragon to reach by itself while her companion hopped himself onto its long, winding neck, pretending to ride it. The dragon looked perfectly content to continue playing with the children.

'_I might…I better take a closer. Just to make sure nothing fishy is going on here.'_

**xXx**

"Astrid!" a boy called out.

After quite a bit of wandering (an it is pretty hard to wander aimlessly without being caught) Hiccup had come across the teen Viking girl who had intrigued him so much in the forest. He found her on the edge of the town, axe in her hand and wood on the ground. She let out a grunt with every swing, obviously very concentrated on her work.

'Astrid' (as it appeared to be her name) let out a shriek and whipped around, loose hair flopping around her face.

The boy who had approached her held up his hands in surrender and backed away. "Woah! Calm down, Astrid, I just went out to look for you! Where have you been?"

"Oh", she responded aloofly. "You know, I was just chopping some firewood here, when all of a sudden, Stormfly lets out a cry and leaves me!"

The brunette boy looked at her curiously. "I wonder what could've made her do it, she's usually one of the most obedient dragons on Berk!"

Astrid shrugged her shoulders and stared off into space, trying to look like she could care less. "I don't know. It was probably a flock of birds, or something, you know how she likes—"

"Berk!" Hiccup gasped under his breath? Were they somewhere that familiar island? Months ago, the entire settlement had been burned down, but was it possible that Vikings were again trying to recolonize the island?

"Wait," Astrid paused, eyes narrowing. "Did you hear something? I thought I heard something."

He had said too much. Hiccup had given away his presence to these strangers, ones who were unmistakably Vikings, and Hiccup hadn't very much trusted Vikings in a while. Slowly, he tip-toed away, quietly as possible from the scene.

"It—it was probably nothing," her companion responded.

"Oh no, I'm pretty fairly sure that it was a something, and that something sounded awfully human-like."

"Oh gods…Astrid, are you suggesting that someone is spying on us!"

"That's exactly what I'm implying! And for all we know, it could be more." Attention now focused on Hiccup's presence, she gripped the wooden handle of the weapon and shouted, "C'mon, show yourself!"

"There is nobody out there!" the boy cried, exasperated with his friend. "Look, I just came to tell you that dragon training is canceled for today. Hookfang has disappeared and no one knows why! We've spent the day looking for him."

'_Dragon training?'_ Hiccup thought fondly. It had been too long since that wonderful phrase had been spoken casually.

"Although knowing him, he probably just got distracted chasing a Terror and fell into a volcano or something."

Astrid leaned against her axe and smiled. "Okay, fine. I'll help you, Hiccup. Odin, what is it with all our dragons being distracted today?" She put down her beloved weapon before walking further into the woods looming behind the teens. "I'm going to go get Stormfly, she's eating something over here."

Ah, yes, now he could see it. The boy's arms were lanky and lacking in muscle. And he was short, even shorter than Astrid, despite them being seemingly the same age. He was a hiccup, an accident, a runt. Just like himself.

And Hiccup had met only one other tribal runt in his life, his friend Fishlegs, and heard about others only in old tales. What coincidence it was to find one that shared his name! It was common Berkian tradition to name the runts 'Hiccup'…

Berk.

He had to ask. He _had _to. It was the next step to finding Fishlegs, to finding his father, to getting everyone back on the right track. And then, Hiccup decided, everything would again be nor—

"Hey!" The Hiccup-boy had run straight into Hiccup, who had stopped walking a little whiles ago, too immersed in his own thoughts. "Sorry! Gah, I didn't see you there!" He stopped to give a slightly awkward smile to Hiccup and a short apology. Hiccup brushed it off and mumbled a 'it's okay' in response.

There was a loud 'What in the name of Midgard are you eating?!' and the soft crushing of leaves, which signaled Astrid's arrival back to the wood-chopping block, Stormfly in tow.

"Hey, Hiccup, I'm back—" She took one glance at Hiccup and flew into a fury. "Ah-ha!" she shrieked rather joyfully, for one who was upset. "I _knew_ someone had been spying on us!" She picked up her axe— and to Hiccup's surprise the axe did not do its job of spilling blood—and held it firmly in her right hand. Astrid's free left hand was held in an accusing position, not a finger pointed at Hiccup, but her body language couldn't be plainer.

"So, _stranger,"_ she snarled, stalking up to Hiccup like a hungry predator. "What brings you here?"

"Woah, woah!" the Hiccup-boy said, in defense of Hiccup. "We weren't doing anything that was worth spying on! He could've been just an innocent person walking through the forest around the same time we were. Believe it or not, Astrid, there is such a thing as _coincidence."_

"Coincidence, fate, whatever!"

The Hiccup-boy looked at Astrid and said, "Well maybe he could help us find Hookfang!" He paused and pondered this before continuing, "Yeah! If you _insist_ that he's here for a reason, maybe he could help us! Sorry, but what was your name?"

Hiccup sighed. "Dogsbreath."

**Sorry for the long wait! As you know, life can be very busy…So tell me what you think so far? Is this a good idea? I'm sorry if anyone else already did something like this, I didn't mean to copy. Reviews, constructive criticism, and comments don't go unappreciated! And (hopefully) the next chapter will be up in a shorter amount of time, maybe slightly longer and include more characters.**

**Fem America 13: Thanks for being the first reviewer! I hope you're enjoying the fanfic. :)**


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